WriteOn! 2024

Rea Gjona
Prrenjas, 6th Grade

1st Place

 

I walk alone the road hopeless. You have never been a dog like me to expect someone throw something to eat or care about me. I’m bored in this world because nobody loves me. I have pain, but I can’t express like you, with words, but I can say ham-ham. Sometimes people are indifferent. They look at me and hit me, saying: Go away you bad animal! There isn’t a bigger offense to me as a loyal animal than to be treated in this way from these humans without soul. I wish you can put the hand in your hearts and had more love for us because we are creatures just like you.

 

With love and blessings your loyal friend.

 

Luisa Ndou

Tirana, 6th Grade

2nd Place

 

            I think it would be best to talk about the thoughts of a dog that lives on the streets. You know why? Because their life is in constant danger. I see them every day, on the street trying to survive. They try to help each other, because they’re not like us. They don’t make each other upset and they certainly don’t want other dogs to be unhappy.

            Every day, they think: will I survive today? Will I make it? But no one cares about them. Because people only care about themselves. People think: why would I care about a dog? I have more important things to deal with. For example: I have to buy the new Iphone 6s+. Meanwhile, the dogs are thinking: I want to eat something. How shall I survive otherwise? There are people that may feed the dogs…people like me, who actually DO care about them. I go and pet them, show them love, feed them…and other people do too….When that happens, dogs think: Wow. That person actually cares. What a surprise. How thoughtful! They don’t care about a new coat or new scarf…they just need someone. Someone to resuce them from this world they are forced to live in.

            No! Come here! Oh you’re sare now!-thinks a dog when his/her friend is safe now <3. And you know they I drew the little heart? Because as I said earlier, dogs do care about others.

            Everyone has heard about these dogs that risk their lives not only for other dogs but people too…in that case, they think “I actually risked my life to help him/her! Don’t I deserve a chance to live in a happy world? Don’t I? Don’t I?”

            There are organisations like Animal Rescue Albania that save homeless or lost dogs. And I’m very proud of them. I really am. With these kinds of people, dogs actually DO have a chance. They do. They really do.

            My dog, well actually my puppy Rexi LOVES to play with dogs that live on the streets. He thinks: wait! Why don’t they have a family? I’m glad that Rexi doesn’t have to suffer like them.

            It makes me cry to see those dogs on the streets. They walk alone in the dark and think: why are we seen as objects? As things you keep till you’re bored with them and then just throw them away. I cry, I cry…but no one seems to hear me- they think. You know what they also think? “Do you ever feel, already buried deep…six feet under screams where no one seems to hear a thing…” Yeah, that is Katy Perry’s song “Firework”. But the other part of the song is: “Do you know that there’s still a chance for you, ‘cause there’s a spark in you…you just gotta ignite the light and let it shine…” etc… That actually makes me feel happy because I know that there’s still hope that the world will be a better place one day, not only for dogs, but for people too….

 

Laert Mema

Tirana, 6th Grade

3rd Place

 

            I’d like this door to open every time: day or night. I wish if I entered in, it would teleport me to every place in the world. It’s a lot of fun when you walk in a door that teleports you everywhere.

            My first destination….hmmm…let me think. Aha! London! I’ve seen a lot of photographs about this city, but I nave have gone there. The grey sky isn’t a big problem. I could visit Big Ben, the parliament, or every important building in London’s history.

            Second destination: Denmark. I’ve read it’s the happiest country in the world. It would be better if the door teleported me to Copenhagen, the capital city. There is a Legoland. You can take a boat ride and see Denmark’s beauties. My mum has been there. My mum never takes me to her job flights. Maybe when I grow up.

            Third destination: Tahiti. Especially Bora Bora. These islands are a paradise for the human eye. You need a lot of money to there. Lucky millionaire people. They can see Bora Bora sea paying a lot of money. But my door will take me to go there.

            Fourth destination: Canada. I’d like to go there when it’s winter. There every winter they built an ice city. Totally with ice. Well you can go to Quebec for Valentine’s day. My door would be my magical travelling item, if it could take me there. There I will transform the door into a gate that would seem like a portal.

            Fifth destination it is exists: Heaven. My door would teleport me there to meet angels. I would meet my guardian angel. I’ll meet the God and tell him to make people not to destroy nature’s beauties. After meeting him, I’d go back to my house and hope God does what I told him.

            Sixth destination may seem a little bit funny but I’d prefer the door takes me to my grandparents’ house in the mountains. It’s full of fresh air. I visit them one time a year but my door would make it one hundred. I’d call my door “The Super Door”. It’d be invisible to bad persons. If this door existed, it’d change our world.

 

 

Gea Qendro
Tirane, 7th Grade

1st Place

 

Once I was asked a very strange question. They ased me that if I had a chance to explore either the space or the oceans, which would I choose? And I have been repeating that question in my head ever since. I think I have come to a conclusion. To be honest, I am not quite sure if it is the deep blue or the deep black that attracts me the most. Or if it is the colorful slippery fish or the colorful dusty planets. Or if it is the risk in both places. But, if I did have a chance to choose…my choice would be space. I’ve always wanted to go there. The aliens won’t want to hurt me, right? I will go pay them a visit in an imaginary trip.

 

I will set off in a minute. The spaceship is shaking. All I can see is the eight blue sky. Birds are flying somewhere far from here. Why won’t they say goodbye to me? Don’t they understand this is maybe the last time they get the chance to see me?

 

-10…9…

Ok, let’s do this.

-8…7…6…

The moment I’ve been waiting for.

-5…4..3..2…

Here we go…

-1…SETTING OFF!

 

I closed my eyes. All I could hear was my inhad and exhale. Silence everywhere. It felt like the time had stopped. “Who cares about the fish?” I thought with my eyes closed. “I’m better off without them.” But I have to open my eyes and steer this thing. Let’s try and stay away from the sun, I don’t want to be burtn to a crisp. I’m looking at the earth and I think it’s beaitul. I feel like it’s in the palm of my hand, and that I can recreate it. But I wouldn’t want to. No need to, I love it the way it is.

 

Ah…here it is… a beautiful red planet. As read as a big juicy tasty tomato. “Hello Mars, nice to meet you!” In fact, it’s my destination. Am I the first to land on Mars? Am I? My legs finally touched the ground. It’s so dusty! I felt like Neil Armstrong, like I had to sentence similar to his. Oh well…can’t think of one.

 

It’s fun to move around, hopping. I can almost fly. I feel like a big bunny. I turn around and look at my spaceship. I hope I don’t get lost. Although this was an imaginary experience. BUT suddenly the ground is shaking. Here comes what I feared most. The Mars Monster. He looked like he came right out of a horror movie. He was tall, read, had black claws and big creepy teeth. Raised his huge arm and sent me flying. I fell on the dusty ground. Oh no. I forgot. It’s space so it’s pretty much impossible to perform specific actions… including standing up.

 

I closed my eyes. Farewell, humanity…birds…earth…I guess my time has come. The monster will kill me.

Something lifted me up. My heart was beating like crazy. The monster had taken me, opened the spaceship door, and put me in. I looked at him slowly walk away. “Maybe we wasn’t so bad after all” I thought while steering my spaceship back home.

 

Here ends my imaginary trip.

 

Xhulia Jasimi

Tirana, 7th Grade

2nd Place

 

Peekaboo and now I’m an astronaut waiting to explore the death labyrinths of space. Well I’m standing by this door that lights move than sun in a crystal clear sky. I’m going in but I’m afraid, the fire in my heart doesn’t light as much as it used to, but I’m sure that it will light more and more but I hae to wait. Is this because the space mysteries are eating my braveness? I don’t know but there is only one way to find out and that’s going into that door. I’m in this looks like paradise. I didn’t think it would be so fascinating. What is happening? All that light is disappointing. Now I’m in the middle of some no life planets… The planets are coming round and round me like they’re dancing. Wait?? The planets are not moving. It’s me that is floating round and round. But I can’t stop, I can’t walk, I can’t do anything except swimming in the air like a small fish in the middle of sharks. Here’s another door as cold as ice. I’m swimming to it. Hopefully, I’ll go out of this no life prison that the quiet is killing me, slowly. But why am I in the middle of ice wearing only a coat. What is this place? What is this stone higher than Mount Everest and thinner than a 20 year old tree. What is all this dust, everything here is covered by ice? I’m cleaning it, wow here is written Mars. At least I am not too far from Earth. I’m seeing some monsters who can these monsters be. Hello, can you hear me? It looks like they can’t speak English. They’re coming to me. Wow they’re fluffy, big, and instead of arms and legs they have gummy bears. They live here next to me now. I can’t understand them but with this translator that they gave me I can. They want me to drink this lemonade. I have nothing to lose. It tastes good. Now I can understand them. They say that they are afraid of people. Because they kill them and with their arms and legs they make gummy bears. I’m not eating gummy bears anymore and people with they’re leather they do coasts. Well I can see that humanity is the monster now. They told me as well that technology in Earth is stolen from them. We are so mean now I can see why. I’m going to Earth to tell this to everybody. But how?! Luckily they gae me this portal to Earth. A new different adventure is waiting for me…

 

 

Bora Lleshi

Tirana, 7th Grade

3rd Place

 

Well if I had to choose between exploring the space or the oceans, I would choose the oceans. And you know why? Probably not, because you can’t read my mind. I’ll tell you why. But before that I’ll tell you why I wouldn’t choose exploring the space. I wouldn’t go to space because yes, there are amazing things that we haven’t discovered yet out there. There might be aliens too but not, I still wouldn’t want to explore the space. Oh wait, but maybe if I went to space I would discover new things, still it’s a no from me- that’s what Simon Cowell says right- anyway, yes I’m a little selfish but my choice, I think it’s the best to evaluate, we even went to space to discover new things outside of our world, but we humans in my opinion need to fist know what’s in our planet, small but truly fascinating. We want to cross our limits, but first we need to learn about them. So why discover the unseen things in space when you can discover the unseen things in our planet?! The world is there waiting for you! That’s why I would choose the oceans over space. I would explore the oceans until there was no more to explore. Me and my crew would discover the most bizarre species that humans could ever see in their whole existence. I would even make experiments like mashing up two, three, a hundred kind of creatures together so that I would create the most extravagant, bizarre, scary looking kind of creature. But, I would also like to explore the most spectacular views that could ever exist. I would also (create) build very weird looking buildings that would well just work for fish I guess because, pardon me for my silliness, human can’t live underwater. But, but, but….MERMAIDS! I totally forgot about them! Now, now, I know some of you don’t believe they are real but I will for sure, find at least one and show it to everybody but only if she or he in this case a merman- agrees. Back to the point, yes it can actually work for mermaids! I would even contact a wizard to turn me into a fish just so I could explore the oceans. I would definitely choose the oceans over space. What fun can you have in space anyway?! You can only jump up and down because of gravity, that’s the only fun thing you can do there. Of course you can stargaze too but most of the time you will be on the spaceship, so…yeah! In the oceans you can swim, dance, laugh at the fish, who bumps into everything, well now that I’m thinking about it you are better off without laughing because if you do so, you will choke… and die. So don’t laugh. Please. But though you can laugh internally. If you are lucky enough you can even find a mermaid and take a selfie with her. And then post it on Instagram because I’m sure nobody would do that. And don’t forget to write #selfiewithamermaid- ok, ok, I’m hilarious. I know thank you. Anyway, I think these are enough reasons to prove to you that choosing to explore the oceans is the best choice- or not. Actually there is one more reason. You can find, I mean I can, a treasure and become very rich, just kidding, I would actually give it to the museum.  And not t lie, I would keep at least ¼ of it. And there is also one more reason, ok no there isn’t only one, there are a lot of them btu I don’t have the time to say them because there are only 11 minutes left. But I will still tell you one of them, the most important one- the oceans are a part of our dear unique planet. They are a part of us.

 

 

Abigeil Tabaku

Tirane, 8th Grade

1st Place

 

Being a girl is great and fun, but sometimes I’d like to be a boy. I think all girls once in their lifetime have thought about that. Knowing that one day you could wake up as the opposite gender is terrifying, but also fun. It’s seven in the morning and you’re ready to get up for school only to find out that you’re a boy. I mean looking at yourself in the mirror with your mouth wide open. Well you have nothing to do about it, so I’d go straight to my dad’s closet to pick up some clothes. But what would my family say about it? They don’t freak out and they look so casual. It’s like I’ve been a boy all my lifetime. When I got to school, I wonder if my friends will notice. I’m about to greet them only when I’m greeted from some guys. Oh right, they’re my classmates. I’m quite sad because now I can’t talk too much to my girlfriends like I used to. One thing is for sure. If they loved girl version of me, they absolutely would love the boy version of me. Now I have P.E. I hate sports and what scares me is that as a boy, I’m expected to do so much better, especially in soccer. I’m now on the ground because someone pushed me while we were playing. How I hate soccer! In the cafeteria I’m sitting by some guys that yesterday I barely talked to. I’m starting to miss my old life so much. Well, I have to accept my destiny from now on. The good thing is that I can hang out tonight until 12 o’clock. As a girl, no one would have let me. Yeah, tell me about it. The other day is the same routine. Wake up, go to school, eat and then go to bed. But each day passing life’s becoming easier. I’m starting to enjoy being a guy. I’m getting to know my guy friends better, learning things and stuff about them, as a girl I’d never know. As days were passing, now becoming months, I was asking myself, “Is this the life I was supposed to have?” but I couldn’t answer that. Being a guy is so much easier, trust me. No one says what you could and could not wear, no one judges your hairstyle, no boy harasses you, and it’s so normal and used to be late at home. I hope other guys would understand what they put girls through. As a boy, I was very respectful. Well, the perks of experiencing both genders. One day I came home, go to my room and stare in my mirror. I started doubting myself. I may could have been a boy for my whole life. But staring at my mirror I realized that it doesn’t matter. Girl or boy, I was still the same. I still loved comic books. I still was a movie fanatic. I still loved the same food and TV shows. I still got hurt easily. What I’ve learned is that even if we’re in the 21st century, society treated men and women so differently. Being a boy was sometimes hard, because you were supposed to be tough all the time. Only waking up as the opposite gender I realized in what sexist society we lived in. Maybe if that was what opened my eyes, wasn’t it for the best experience what I did. Well it was getting late so I went to sleep. The other morning I was so ready to start my day. Only when I saw myself in the mirror, I couldn’t believe it. A girl?! What happened! Was I dreaming the whole time? Well, it wasn’t such a big deal. I mean, I got used to it now, right?

 

 

Tea Frashahu

Tirana, 8th Grade

2nd Place

 

Time travel. One of the things that science hasn’t achieved yet. Well there are a lot of places I’d like to see how they were build. I would go back in ancient Egypt. I always asked myself how the pyramids were built? I also fancy all those movies or documentatries about these times. There are a lot of theories about the pyramids about how they were built. Some say that they had special machines that helped them, some say they had help from UFOs and some people believe that the locations of all the pyramids can form a map to somewhere or some kind of portal. It is believed that this map was used from the aliens. There are also theories that pyramids have all kinds of traps in there, to me it sounds like they want to protect something, but what? Pyramids are graves, graves of kings and royalties, but I don’t really think that all that hard work and all those traps protect a mummy or just a tomb. It’s like there is something magical in there, something really powerful but yet dangerous. That’s why I would like to go back to find out what’s in there. These days there are movies that talk about this a magical item. Maybe inside there still live creatures from the past. Now, I’m there, standing in a huge crowd. The Pharoah is giving a speech and all of a sudden, I can understand what he is saying even though, I’ve never heard this language before. The Pharaoh is gathering people to help finish the pyramid. He has a list of names on his hand. In a moment I hear my name, some guards with animal masks on their heads come near me. I’m one of the chosen people. I can see the pyramids, they are huge majestic. Among normal people, some weird creatures walk around. They’re also helping using some big machines to transport big blocks. Only one of them weighs one ton. I walk away from the crowd because I see that nearby is black tent, protected by numerous guards. That must be it, they must guarding something, but how can I get in there? Waiting for the guards to move or get distracted was useless. So instead, I walked around seeing how people worked. There are thousands of people and a couple hundred of those creatures. Around the pyramids is the big machines, they are all made of wood. The Pharoah has already moved back in his palace. The palace was amazing, the most beautiful building I have ever seen. Even bigger than modern day skyscrapers. When night came, I went near the tent. The guards were asleep so I managed to quietly get in. All I saw was a big black box, but unfortunately I couldn’t open it. Anyways, I realized I was right all that wasn’t just a grave, it was a safe, used to protect that big black box. What could be inside it? How to open it? I tried again this time a knocked the box to the ground, it opened! For a moment, I was just not too scared to see what was in there. Slowly I grabbed the end of the box that was lying upside down. A big key fell on the ground. I had the length of a 15 cm ruler but it was truly heavy. A mystery heading to another is that what ancient Egypt is all about? Another question pops in: What does the key open? It must certainly be a huge door. I took the key with me and I quietly left the tent. Walking in the night, wondering about what door opens that key. Well I guess somethings are meant to be secret and the Egyptians were doing their best to keep it that way. Even though I didn’t find what I was looking for, I learned a lot. How they work, how they live? My journey to ancient Egypt was great, but mysteries remained so.  

 

 

Era Boka

Tirana, 8th Grade

3rd Place

 

I’m a girl. Girls can do everything. Everyone (I mean every boy) says they opposite. So, this is why I got the idea to be a boy for one day. But how do I do it? Should I find the end of the rainbows? No, it’s too far. So I decided to sleep and go to my dream land. Dreamland is different and special. I have been there lots of time and I totally have to show you what it’s like there. There is a big pink and shiny gate as soon as you close your eyes. You show your thumb to the ground and he will open it.

 

Now you’re in. You see other kids riding unicorns, a big dazzling playground. Little diamonds falling like rain. What you need is the Dream Cabin that makes your dreams and wishes come true…So I went to the Dream Cabin and wished to be a boy for one day. For your wish to come true, you must drink a glass of unicorn milk and then leave the cabin. I woke up tomorrow and when I sneezed it wasn’t that high pitched noised anymore. What I heard was disgusting.

 

As a girl, I always used to say that boys are gross and they’re worth zero money. But I started liking being a boy and even spending money like a boy. I fell in love with being a boy and protecting my gender against girls.

 

They say we don’t know how to do anything- we can’t cook, we can’t wash dishes, and things like that. It was so annoying. I’ll never say those things like that. It was so annoying. I’ll neer say those things to boys again. I feel so bad now, just like a spoiled brat who’s selfish and doesn’t know hot o appreciate human beings. I was enjoying my “boyish” day but I didn’t want to spend the rest of the day with people’s company.

 

I went to the forest because I wanted to prove myself that boys are brave. It was dark and windy. It looked like a horror movie. Was I a girl in a boy’s body? I should’ve thought this before. What if a wolf came out of nowhere and eat me alive?

 

Thinks Era think! Faster! Come on! Oh! Great! I’ll close my eyes and sleep so I can go to DreamLand. I laid on the ground, slept, and here I am. I ran fast and went to the Dream Cabin. I want to be a girl again. Drank some unicorn milk and woke up as a girl.

 

 

Grace Kelliçi
Tirane, 9th Grade

1st Place

 

Imagine this. You are walking down a path. At the end of the path you see something. Curiosity pushes you to get closer and find out what it is. You realize that it’s a door. Of course, the first question that comes to mind is: What’s behind it? Could there be material riches like gold and jewels that touch the ceiling of the room? Could there be a different kind of treasure? Instead of precious metal and other material goods maybe there’s something more important. Perhaps, an answer to a question you’ve been asking yourself for a long time. You reach out to open the door and find out but you back down. After wondering what is behind the door you ask yourself a more crucial question: Why is it closed? Could it be that what lies behind the door isn’t something good, but the opposite? And as this question remains in your head you begin to wonder if what stands behind the door isn’t waiting to be discovered at all.

 

Suddenly you can’t help to do anything, but what you’ve been doing so far: wonder. Wonder what it could be. Could it be a horrible secret? Could it be a kind of a Pandora box, having all of the possible bad things that could bring the worst upon mankind? Maybe you’re wrong. Maybe you’re just making too much of a big deal out of it. Maybe you should simply open the door and put an end to the agonizing torture.

 

Yet again, you can’t ignore the possibility of being right. Would it be worth it. With a million thoughts running through your head you stop and remember something. A wise man once said that some things are not meant to be discovered. They are simply meant to remain unknown to the curious mind of man. And besides, what’s life without a bit of mystery? For within every mystery lies a bit of magic. Though many people don’t believe in magic, it wouldn’t hurt for those who choose to believe. In such a situation it’s just better to walk away. Why take something from behind a door, when you can have some fun finding it or better yet, making it during a journey of a lifetime?

 

Helio Ramollari

Elbasan, 9th grade

2nd Place

 

Have you ever heard about social problems? I guess so but nowdays the biggest problem is war. Everybody have heard about the war in Syria. The war is the worst Evil Emperor for everyone but for children specially. I will never summon any mystical creature but I’ll choose only humans. Humans have started this war and they should stop it. I’ll summon a Syrian children with every children in the world. Everybody would think that I’ll summon the USA president, with Germany’s Prime Minister, Russia’s Prime Minister, etc. but they are very busy winning money.

The war is destroying the world or it will be. The first and second world war was very bad. And every children don’t want the third war but the problem is that the children can’t stop the terrorist but if all the children come together I think that their parents will do the same and so we will have a better world with happier humans and no war.

The wars are just like hyenas, they grab the good things. We are in this life to help to be help to other humans. Albanians know very well what being in a war mean. The Italians, Germans, Turkeys have always fight the Albanians about their territory but they lost. I was to express that we are ready to do everything to make things better.

 

 

Fatma Koçi

Elbasan, 9th grade

3rd Place

 

I have been living on the house of Mrs. Smith for 7 years. She’s a cousin of my parents and since the day they left me there, they never came back. I have tried to ask Mrs. Smith about them, but she never told me something. Her house is a very big place. My room is at the second floor and I really like the view from my window. I really do like Mrs. Smith’s house, because it’s a place every kid will want, with lots of games and every kind of delicious food.

                But there’s something about this house that makes me a bit scared, something I have noticed since the first I went in, a closed door on the last floor. That door has a darker colour than the other doors at this house and I have never seen someone enter that door, because Mrs. Smith keeps telling us that we should never enter that door, whatever happens.

                I have always wondered why not, since I was a little kid, but never had the courage to put my fingers on the door and open it. One day I was alone in home. Mrs. Smith had gone somewhere with the other part of family. So, I got an amazing chance to make my dream or my nightmare come true. I was standing right behind the door and I don’t know why before opening the door, I was thinking of the last time I saw my parents. I could not believe my eyes, I opened the door and I have seen something like that, not even in movies, or not even in books. A whole another galaxy in our house. There were no walls, or beds, or clothes at this room, just a room full of stars, some planets and some asteroids. I was amazed. Suddenly, I saw thing. I touched it and it started talking:

“I am the smartest time machine ever. Hello, Fatma! I take you whenever or wherever you want.”

It was hard for me to choose what to do, to answer it or not. I was so scared, but at least I had nothing to lose.

“I want to go 7 years ago. I want to see everything. I want to see what happened with my parents.”

“I personally know your parents and everything they did after they left you,” the time machine said.

I closed my eyes and I found myself at a totally white room. And then I started seeing everything. Tears come streaming out of eyes and I didn’t know what to do. My parents were the ones who created the time machine, so, other people always looked at them with fear. They wanted to kill my parents because people somehow may be afraid of the smartest and the new generation with great ideas.

                And then I understood everything. I have to keep the time machine safe. The only thing they wanted so much. I had to walk by the steps of their passion. I had to show the world the ideas of an evolution. And new evolution, which will make all of our lives better.

 

Edra Tabaku
Tirane, 10th Grade

1st Place

 

       My invention is a dream machine. I created it during my high school days. To use this rare invention, you need to be with an expert. I guess you’re wondering what does this invention do and how does it change our lives?

       This invention can be used to see someone’s dreams. I got the brilliant idea during my worst days. When you’re a child, you’re afraid of things that don’t really exist like “Boogy Man” or even small things that can’t be harmful like bugs. I was told that when I got older all my fears would shrink, but right now I’m more insecure. That day, I was really thinking about this. I saw a lot of nightmares just because of my insecurities. I don’t know if those nightmares made my fears come stronger. And then I thought, “What if I could create new dreams and delete my nightmares? What if I could see my dreams, on my screen, just like they were a movie, waiting for me to analyze them.” I guess this time it would be easier because I know my story. I know why I react in the way I do in my own dream.

       And then I spent many years on my small lab. Just a chair, a table, some equipments, me and my madness. Finally, the product was in my hand. I presented my invention to my dearest teacher, the one who taught me everything I know about technology and innovation, Mr. Banks. I remember the day we decided to try it. It was rainy or cloudy, I don’t really remember the weather but anyway, we took a guy who worked on our secret lab to try the machine. I placed the biological DG mini helmet on his head, connected it with the TV screen and waited next to me. Then it was finally there, on my screen, my colleague’s dreams.

       Firstly, he was opening a door. He saw his hand. It was bleeding. In his other hand, he had a gun. I turned around and glanced at him. Even though he was asleep, he seemed nervous, anxious, and sweaty. I turned my head back to the screen. On the ground, somebody was dead. Then his body disappeared and turned into black, small butterflies.

       Every butterfly was flying away, except one. On her wings, there was a woman’s face printed. The butterfly waved her wings a couple of times, going slower and slower. He took the butterfly in his hand. She was dead. I turned back around and saw him moving from one side to another, just like he wanted to wake up. I immediately ran near him and woke him up. He was scared. I could see that in his eyes. He mumbled something and slowly walked out of the lab.

       “What is wrong with you?” Mr. Banks shouted. “We need to find out something important and you woke him up because you’re so sensitive. Be a scientist, not a pure human.”

       I just went downstairs ignoring him. It was my invention. Not his. Why was he going to teach me how to use it? I approached my new terrified colleague, whose name is not going to be mentioned for practical reasons and said that I could plant new dreams in his head. He just nodded and grabbed my wrist softly. “Okay,” he finally said. I placed the helmet on his head and went near the screen.

       “How do you want your dream to be?” I said.

       “Happy.” I didn’t know what to do. Different people define happiness differently. “I want to be the director of this lab.”

       I thought this was helpful. I created a new dream. He was happily directing the lab.

       “Make dreams true!” This was an option I also created.

       “Wouldn’t it be great if he directed our lab instead of Mr. Banks? Mr. Banks is an amazing person but he’s really pushy sometimes.”

       I thought and then pressed the button. My colleague woke up. “Ms. Tabaku, the invention is ready to be used. Everything is great. Hand it to me.” He said and left. The next day, I found out that Mr. Banks was fired. I ran to director office.

       “The machine is not ready to use. If I don’t delete ‘make dreams true’ option, people will do whatever they want. Their dreams can be harmful. This machine can improve the world of dreams, but it can destroy our world.” He opened the safe, took the helmet and handed it to me. “Do what is right,” he said and walked me to the door. I ran to my lab thinking about what could happen if I didn’t delete the option. Many people would be happy, there would be no diseases, or poverty. But then many people would be able to control the world with their arrogance and greed. I was going to delete it. The world would be ready to be introduced to my invention. They could see their dreams and analyze them, that’s it. It was life-changing for humanity. Everyone would have the opportunity to see their dreams. And their demons wouldn’t be able to take the world easily.

 

 

Rea Tresa

Tirana, 10th Grade

2nd Place

 

                This is it. I stand in front of my mirror, looking pale and frightened, and at the same time not sure about why I chose to do this in the first place. My sister and parents are staying here, forcing what looks to me like a smile. I try my best to make myself look like I believe them, but deep inside I know that every piece of courage they have left is falling off like a dead leaf pulled from a branch of a tree. I love them with every single part of my being and I’m sure they’re aware of that.

                They say that when you loving something you should let it go. If it comes back it’s yours, if it doesn’t, it never was. They know that I may never return home, but they also know that the purpose for which I’m willing to sacrifice myself is much bigger. Humanity is about to die in less than a week and as a part of NASA I couldn’t let that happen, at least now without trying to do something about it first.

                We got notified about 10 weeks ago that the Earth stopped rotating around its axis and without adding a single word, we knew what that meant. How did we? We’re astronauts. We immediately pictured in our minds how half of the population would die from sunburn and how the other half would get to stay in eternal darkness and die from cold. WE also know that with each minute that passed we were fliting with death. The only solution was clear to everyone. Some of us had to volunteer and get onto a spaceship to bomb Antarctica in order to reactivate the centrifugal force and consequently cause the Earth to start rotating again. You can imagine now who did volunteer.

                I get my backpack and as I start cycling through a script of what I will say to my family as I leave, it occurs to me that nothing is appropriate enough to express any sympathy to what they’re about to go through, so I just hug all of them tighter than ever, trying to take with me every piece of their warmness and scent.

                In less than three hours, I’m there as the final countdown finished and the spaceship start leaving the Earth’s atmosphere, my colleagues and I start exchanging some words, trying to look as casual as possible. While I look at the Earth from above, I start following the path of my thoughts as the turn over one another. I can’t stop thinking how beautiful the world is, even though it’s just a drop in the universe.

                Now we are ready. We turn on the artificial gravity since we are not in the mood to flow in the air, and we all get to our places. We are exactly above Antarctica and while we’re about to throw a bomb at it, the idea start taking shape on my mind and I feel like it starts flowing through my veins. WE can’t die. There had to be another way. Without me ordering it to my body starts running to Marc, and I get the control of the spaceship. His dark blue eyes look astonished, angry and frightened at the same time. I tell him and my other colleagues that we don’t have so much time left to explain but I guarantee them that we will land safe and sounds and we’ll go back home to our loved ones.

                Without adding anything more, I give the spaceship maximal velocity as we throw the bomb and start heading to the ocean. The previous place is on fire, but we are not because the water doesn’t allow flames to reach us.

                We start clapping and hugging each other and the whole place is filled with cheers. We did it. The Earth started rotating again. As the rescue team comes to get us, I feel delighted and proud of myself for what we did. Now humanity is safe and I will get another chance to start my life over again.

                One day, when my children look at the stars just like I used to. I will tell them my story, and maybe, as unbelievable as weird as it will sound they will feel just as proud and grateful as the entire humanity does feel right now.

 

 

Elja Lika

Tirana, 10th Grade

3rd Place

 

                From the first moment I had the idea I knew something would go wrong. I felt it, but I don’t even know myself why UI went along with all of the situation. I guess back then it seemed like a better choice…

                It was summer of 2013 when my family was having some big economical issues. My dad had lost his job since 2010 when he had that heart surgery and my mom got fired from her boss two months ago. We were very bad, had ourselves in a lot of debts and couldn’t really afford to buy the most essential things.

                I was feeling terrible and scared of the situation. Every day that went by was making things worse and worse. I really didn’t knew what to do to help my parents out. One day I decided to go for a walk past the lake near my house. The sun was shining bright right into my eyes and the warm wind seemed to have my back. As I was walking along the ground I noticed a big metal box floating in the lake. It read “Do not open. EVER.” in big red letters. I was scared, pumped and intrigued at the same time. My brain was telling me to go home, but my heart was screaming to me drive in and pick it out. What can I say? As always I listened to my heart. 

                A few minutes later I got out of the lake soaking wet and with a backache (Yeyy…). The box was just standing there in front of me. Everything went through my head at that moment. Maybe I’d find an empty box and fall for a huge prank. The funny thing was that the box had no lock or any type of security with it. It just opened right away.

                In two words I found METAL and ROCKS. I felt like the most idiot person of the universe until I noticed a small manual on the side that read: “The steps of building the diamond-maker.” I opened it and it explained in physics terms and formulas. I was good at science ever a since a little kid and I was able to understand some of the words, but I wasn’t ‘that great’ after all, so I called Tim. Tim was my best friend since kindergarten and he was super smart when it came to this things.

                Tim and I met and he helped me remove the box back at my house. At that time we both had understood that we had in our hands something that would change not only our world, but everybody’s. We studied for three weeks, opened every single book of physics that we had and got to one conclusion. By combining four types of different energy the machine could take any piece of rock, put it under strong pressure and turn it into a diamond. Firstly, we couldn’t believe it ourselves, but when we came to think about every piece of the puzzle matched perfectly.

                However, along of the situation IU wasn’t feeling great about all this. In my life I was a person who had the need of money, but I also know that it had a big impact on people. I had seen by close up pliantly of situations where people changed in its presence. Transformed in a very not pleasing way and I was scared, scared of me, of my friends, family and all the people I loved. Sometimes I was even scared of the world.

                It took both of us near a month and a half to get the whole thing together, but it came a point that it was ready. WE had in our hands a ‘DIAMOND MAKER’ that actually worked.

                What happened next I have to say wasn’t very pleasing to me. Yeah, my family’s economical situation got from terrible to fantastic in one day, but the people I knew, the ones I loved weren’t the same anymore. I could barely recognize Tim. My father wasn’t even in the house anymore, he had to make sure to present the invention to everybody and my mom my mom just joined the rest of the squad.

                You know, when people used to say that “money can’t buy your happiness,” well, I didn’t believe them. I thought it was all just an old saying they used to comfort people, but now, that I’m lonelier and disappointed than ever I do, I believe them more than anyone in the world. At one point I think about it and I wished I could turn back time and just listened to my brain, I guess things would have turned out better…